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The industry leader in emerging technology researchMon, 25 Sep 2017 15:05:19 +0000en-UShourly1Verizon adds 2M new connections, but customer turnover increaseshttps://gigaom.com/2015/01/22/verizon-adds-2m-new-connections-but-customer-turnover-increases/
https://gigaom.com/2015/01/22/verizon-adds-2m-new-connections-but-customer-turnover-increases/#commentsThu, 22 Jan 2015 15:44:02 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=908776At a high level, Verizon had a very good fourth quarter for customer growth. It brought on board an additional 2.07 million subscriptions, upgraded many old feature phone customers to new 4G smartphones and connected 1.4 million new tablets to its network. But there were also definite signs that Verizon’s formidable wireless citadel is showing weaknesses as competition from T-Mobile and a recently rejuvenated Sprint increases.
[company]Verizon[/company]’s churn rate was the highest its been in more than two years, hitting 1.39 percent. A carrier’s churn is the percentage of overall customers who leave each quarter. Carriers with a lot of prepaid and transient customers tend have a lot higher churn, but Verizon, with its huge focus on postpaid contracts and family plans, historically tends to have the lowest turnover rate in the industry.

Just because a churn rate is high doesn’t mean a carrier is shrinking. It just has to court new customers more aggressively. That’s exactly what Verizon did in the fourth quarter, luring customers over from other carriers and encouraging existing customers to connect more gadgets. But CFO Fran Shammo said Verizon was only prepared to be so aggressive. Many of those departing customers left because prices were cheaper at the competition, and Verizon isn’t willing to engage in price war, preferring instead to let those customers go, Shammo said at Verizon’s earnings call.

Verizon by no means is crumbling under the pressure of T-Mobile’s Uncarrier strategy, but an increasing churn rate is definitely something to keep an eye on. The last time Verizon’s postpaid churn rate popped up above 1 percent was in Q1 of 2014, when Verizon actually lost phone customers for the first time in recent memory.

Verizon ended 2014 with 108 million total postpaid and prepaid connections. Though Verizon reported profits for the full year of $2.42 per share, it suffered a loss in fourth quarter of $2.15 billion, or 54 cents a share.

During the company’s earnings call, Shammo was also asked about the possible threat of Google entering the carrier biz by becoming a mobile virtual network operator. The CFO didn’t seem too worried. He pointed out MVNOs have been around for 15 years with posing any huge threat to Verizon. Shammo has a point. By becoming a virtual operator, [company]Google[/company] would need the carriers to give it wholesale access to their networks. It’s difficult to challenge an industry when you’re entirely dependent on that industry to survive.

]]>https://gigaom.com/2015/01/22/verizon-adds-2m-new-connections-but-customer-turnover-increases/feed/1FreedomPop cobbles together a Wi-Fi network of 10M hotspotshttps://gigaom.com/2015/01/21/freedompop-cobbles-together-a-wi-fi-network-of-10m-hotspots/
https://gigaom.com/2015/01/21/freedompop-cobbles-together-a-wi-fi-network-of-10m-hotspots/#commentsWed, 21 Jan 2015 14:00:58 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=908267FreedomPop started selling its own Wi-Fi-only phone last year, so it was only a matter of time before the mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) started selling Wi-Fi service. On Wednesday it will turn on access to a Wi-Fi network of 10 million hotspots and an unlimited voice, SMS and Wi-Fi data plan for $5 a month – quite a deal if you don’t mind cutting the tether to the cellular network completely.

The Wi-Fi network is actually owned and run by many different ISPs and hotspot aggregators, FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols told me in an interview, though he wouldn’t reveal the names of specific providers. He did, however, name specific examples of places FreedomPop Wi-Fi can found: [company]Starbucks[/company], [company]Burger King[/company], [company]McDonalds[/company] and [company]Panera Bread[/company] locations; [company]Walmart[/company] and [company]Home Depot[/company]; malls and outdoor hot zones in major metro markets.

So FreedomPop is obviously working with some of the biggest Wi-Fi aggregators in the country such as [company]Google[/company] and [company]AT&T[/company] as well as big ISPs like the cable operators, who run urban hotspot networks. Stokols did confirm that FreedomPop is not working with [company]Boingo[/company] so you’re probably not going to see FreedomPop’s Wi-Fi service in a lot of airports, but he said there is a deal with Devicescape in the making, which could add millions more crowdsourced hotspots from small businesses to FreedomPop’s network in the coming months.

To tie all of those different networks together, FreedomPop has developed an Android app (no word yet on iOS) that will act as a kind of skeleton key for those 10 million hotspots. The app will automatically log the device into the access point when they’re available and will establish secure links at hotspots that support encrypted connections. As more ISPs move adopt newer Hotspot 2.0 technology, FreedomPop will migrate its app to the new login technology as well, Stokols said.

FreedomPop won’t just be selling offering the service over its own tablets and phones. The company plans to use the network to expand beyond [company]Sprint[/company] devices — it currently resells Sprint’s 4G data services – to practically any device that has a Wi-Fi radio. Stokols said that there are millions of retired devices lying around people’s homes that no longer have cellular service from any of the major carriers. FreedomPop is offering to reconnect those devices through Wi-Fi. There’s also an opportunity to sell FreedomPop’s Wi-Fi access to prepaid phone users with limited data plans, Stokols said.

It’s safe to say that FreedomPop’s customers are already pretty comfortable with Wi-Fi. The virtual carrier’s baseline “freemium” service gives any customer 200 VoIP minutes, 500 text messages and 500 MB of 4G data at no charge, so customers naturally gravitate to their home, office and public Wi-Fi networks to augment their data usage. FreedomPop eventually plans to begin asking its customers to bring their own personal Wi-Fi routers into the fold, creating a crowdsourced network similar to Fon’s, Stokols said.

]]>https://gigaom.com/2015/01/21/freedompop-cobbles-together-a-wi-fi-network-of-10m-hotspots/feed/1Sprint is growing again, adding 1M new connectionshttps://gigaom.com/2015/01/08/sprint-is-growing-again-adding-1m-new-connections/
https://gigaom.com/2015/01/08/sprint-is-growing-again-adding-1m-new-connections/#commentsThu, 08 Jan 2015 15:55:26 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=905133T-Mobile tried valiantly but it didn’t overtake Sprint as No. 3 U.S. mobile carrier in 2014. Sprint actually had a great holiday season, adding 967,000 net new mobile subscriptions to its network in its fiscal third quarter ending December 31.

Like [company]T-Mobile[/company], [company]Sprint[/company] reported its subscriber numbers ahead of its official earnings next month, and the new growth should put Sprint at 56 million total connections, 1 million more than T-Mobile. Sprint actually began its turnaround over the summer when Marcelo Claure took over from ousted CEO Dan Hesse. Claure launched a series of plan changes, new programs and discounts designed to make Sprint competitive again, including its most recent “cut your bill in half” promotion.

In Sprint’s fiscal Q2, Sprint added 464,000 net new subscriptions, but all of that growth came from wholesale connections from its mobile virtual network operator (MVNO) customers. Those customers bring a fraction of the revenue of a full retail subscriber on a Sprint plan.

In the most recent quarter, wholesale was still a big driver, accounting for half of new connections, but Sprint saw growth across the board, including 30,000 net new postpaid customers. That’s not a huge number, but considering Sprint has been shedding these valuable postpaid customers for years, any growth in the segment is a positive. Sprint also added 410,000 new prepaid customers on its Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile brands.

]]>https://gigaom.com/2015/01/08/sprint-is-growing-again-adding-1m-new-connections/feed/5T-Mobile grew by 8.3M subscribers in 2014https://gigaom.com/2015/01/07/t-mobile-grew-by-8-3m-subscribers-in-2014/
Wed, 07 Jan 2015 17:02:51 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=904865T-Mobile’s customer growth spurt continued into the normally busy holiday season in 2014 as it added 2.1 million new connections to its ranks. It wasn’t T-Mobile’s best quarter of the year for subscriber growth – that would be its blockbuster Q1 – but it was a good way to cap off a very successful year.

Off the back of its evolving Uncarrier strategy, T-Mobile recruited 8.3 million net new subscribers to its ranks, the carrier revealed Wednesday ahead of its official earnings next announcement next month. In a single year T-Mobile grew its customer base by 18 percent, giving it a connection total of 55 million. At the end of Q3, Sprint had 55 million subscribers as well, so if Sprint continued its customer loss streak in Q4, T-Mobile will have assumed the mantle of the country’s third largest carrier.

T-Mobile’s gains weren’t all due to Uncarrier, though. It added 1.3 million net new postpaid customers and 266,000 net new prepaid subscribers in the quarter, but the remaining 586,000 links were comprised of wholesale connections from mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs) like Ultra Mobile, Straight Talk and Target’s Brightspot, as well as from machine to machine connections linking the internet of things. Sprint used to be king of MVNOs, but T-Mobile has become much more aggressive in attracting virtual operator customers as of late.

]]>T-Mobile starts selling cheap international voice planshttps://gigaom.com/2014/11/19/t-mobile-starts-selling-cheap-international-voice-plans/
Wed, 19 Nov 2014 17:59:24 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=890272Last year T-Mobile became the first major U.S. carrier to break the stranglehold on international roaming by offering free SMS and 2G data to customers who ventured beyond U.S. borders. Now it’s taking a crack at the other side of that cross-border communication equation.

On Wednesday T-Mobile launched two promotional international calling plans with different costs depending on whether you’re calling a landline number or a mobile phone. The first is $5 a month and gives you unlimited calls from the U.S. to landlines in 70 countries, including Mexico, Canada, most of Europe, and parts of Latin America and Asia. The second plans costs $10 a month and give you unlimited calls to mobile numbers as well (overseas mobile numbers have higher termination fees), but it’s available only to 30 countries, mainly those in Europe.

There is one other big plus to these plans: they apply to T-Mobile accounts, not individual phone lines, meaning every line on the same bill can take advantage of the unlimited calling plans for a single $5 or $10 monthly fee.

The T-Mobile plans are available to customers on its Simple Choice plans until the end of the year, though customers can carry the plans over into 2015 and beyond. As the holiday season ramps up, T-Mobile is cranking up its deal machine. Starting on Friday T-Mobile will start giving a free Android tablet, the Alcatel OneTouch Pop 7, to anyone who signs up for a slate data plan.

]]>Ting: Our average smartphone customer pays just $26 a monthhttps://gigaom.com/2014/08/29/ting-our-average-smartphone-customer-pays-just-26-a-month/
https://gigaom.com/2014/08/29/ting-our-average-smartphone-customer-pays-just-26-a-month/#commentsFri, 29 Aug 2014 17:23:37 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=868926If you’re still not convinced that signing up for a mobile virtual network operator would save you money compared to the big carriers, then Ting just laid it out for you in black and white.

In a blog post this week, the Tucows-owned MVNO revealed its customers’ average monthly bills for the month of July. For a single smartphone user it came out to $26 a month, and for a family of four smartphone users the bill totaled $71 a month.

Source: Ting

That $26-a-month customer is making 250 minutes of voice calls and sending or receiving 365 text messages each month, but he or she isn’t exactly racking up multiple gigabytes of mobile data. The average monthly data consumption for a single-user plan on Ting was 314 MB a month and 865 MB for a four-phone plan. Cisco Systems’ latest Visual Networking Index puts average smartphone consumption in the U.S. at 1.38 GB per month.

But Ting, like most MVNOs, tends to attract budget-minded customers, many looking for much more conservative data plans. Also, as Michael Goldstein, Tucows VP of marketing, points out in the post, Ting’s 70,000 customers lean heavily on home, office and public hotspot Wi-Fi, minimizing the amount of data they consume over cellular networks. If that same $26-a-month Ting customer were to consume 2 GBs of month of 4G data, his or her bill would still wind up being $49 a month, on par with the pricing that many MVNOs are charging for their data-heavy plans.

Ting, which uses Sprint’s CDMA and LTE networks, is embracing a billing concept that I think should be adopted more widely in the U.S. Instead of charging you for a big bundle of services you might never use — for instance, unlimited voice and SMS — Ting only charges you what for use. So if you use a lot of data but make few calls or send few text messages, your bills reflect it.

The problem with most mobile plans today is that they only reward people who use their service in massive quantities. If you really are spending your evenings chatting on the phone, your days in constant SMS communications with friends and downloading gobs of video over the cellular network, then an all-you-can-eat voice and text and 4GB data plan makes sense for you. But if you’re one of millions of Americans using any or all of those services more sparingly on the big carriers, you’re likely still paying close to the same rates as those hard-core smartphone users.

]]>https://gigaom.com/2014/08/29/ting-our-average-smartphone-customer-pays-just-26-a-month/feed/1FreedomPop starts selling tablets with free data and voice planshttps://gigaom.com/2014/07/30/freedompop-starts-selling-tablets-with-free-data-and-voice-plans/
https://gigaom.com/2014/07/30/freedompop-starts-selling-tablets-with-free-data-and-voice-plans/#commentsWed, 30 Jul 2014 13:00:55 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=861343FreedomPop’s freemium mobile voice and data services are available in mobile hotspots, home modems and smartphones, but until today there was one 4G device it hadn’t yet tackled: the tablet. On Wednesday, though, it will begin selling iPad minis and the Samsung Tab 3, both of which will come with its standard 500-MB, 500-SMS and 200-minute monthly plan at no cost.

The devices are refurbished Sprint(s s) tablets that will connect to that carrier’s LTE and CDMA networks. As a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), FreedomPop buys wholesale data from Sprint(s s) on which it builds its communications services. It gives users a small monthly pool of data, VoIP an IP SMS a to use or share with friends and then upsells its customers on additional usage and other features like VPN access, data compression and boosted network speeds.

The Samsung Tab 3, along with the iPad mini, will be the first two tablets FreedomPop will sell.

The move to tablets, though, is an interesting twist on its business model. You don’t necessarily need a mobile broadband connection to productively use a tablet as the millions of people who buy Wi-Fi-only slates demonstrate on daily basis. According to CEO Stephen Stokols, FreedomPop is trying to make the idea of the 4G tablet more palatable by giving away baseline mobile connectivity for free and throwing in a phone number to boot.

The first-generation iPad mini will sell for $319 and the Tab 3 for $199 on the MVNO’s website. FreedomPop will also connect other LTE-capable Sprint tablets for customers who bring their own device, Stokols said.

FreedomPop’s offer is particularly compelling, though, because you can buy a discounted slate without a paying a dime in service fees as long as you stay below its 500 MB monthly threshold. And if you ever wanted to cancel your service with FreedomPop the you still have perfectly functioning tablet you can use over Wi-Fi.

]]>https://gigaom.com/2014/07/30/freedompop-starts-selling-tablets-with-free-data-and-voice-plans/feed/3FreedomPop plans to spread its freemium mobile service across Europehttps://gigaom.com/2014/07/10/freedompop-plans-to-spread-its-freemium-mobile-service-across-europe/
https://gigaom.com/2014/07/10/freedompop-plans-to-spread-its-freemium-mobile-service-across-europe/#commentsThu, 10 Jul 2014 13:39:40 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=856659FreedomPop is coming to Europe, launching its free voice and data plans in Belgium later this year with plans to expand into the U.K. and other countries in 2015.

FreedomPop is a mobile virtual network operator, meaning it doesn’t own any network infrastructure and instead pays a traditional carrier for access to its network. In the U.S. its carrier partner is Sprint(s s), while in Europe it’s KPN Belgium, though FreedomPop CEO Stephen Stokols said the deal is just the first of many it hopes to negotiate as it moves to other parts of Europe.

“Belgium is actually a test market for us,” Stokols said. “It’s small. It’s wealthy. Everyone has credit cards. It’s a good way for test the European market before we jump into Germany or the U.K.”

Like Sprint, KPN Belgium is the third-largest carrier in its home country (where it operates under the brand Base) so it’s more amenable to MVNO deals that could potentially shake up the local mobile market. Unlike Sprint, KPN and other European carriers use GSM technology and operate in a SIM card-driven services market.

That works out to be a big advantage for FreedomPop since it doesn’t have to deal with procuring, stocking and supporting smartphones. It just need to ship SIM cards and invite customers to download the iPhone and Android apps that power its core VoIP and messaging services, Stokols said.

Europe is also a much more inexpensive market than the U.S. when it comes to voice and data pricing. Stokols, however, said FreedomPop expects to see interest in its service – no matter how cheap European mobile plans are, you can’t beat free. FreedomPop plans to replicate its core freemium service plan in Belgium, offering 200 voice minutes, 500 SMS messages and 500 MBs of data at no cost. FreedomPop sells larger-bucket plans and charges customers that go over their gratis allotments.

But FreedomPop could tweak the numbers on its baseline plan as it gets closer to launch this fall. Consumer mobile pricing isn’t just cheap in Europe. Wholesale pricing for virtual operators is inexpensive as well.

“It’s half of what we pay domestically,” Stokols said. “We could give 1 GB away for free and pay the same wholesale prices we do in the U.S.”

]]>https://gigaom.com/2014/07/10/freedompop-plans-to-spread-its-freemium-mobile-service-across-europe/feed/2TextNow’s VoIP-only mobile phones can now swap calls between Wi-Fi and cellularhttps://gigaom.com/2014/07/08/textnows-voip-only-mobile-phones-can-now-swap-calls-between-wi-fi-and-cellular/
Tue, 08 Jul 2014 19:08:44 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=856079We’re still a long way from replacing our traditional 2G networks with all-IP voice calling services, but mobile VoIP pioneer TextNow got a little closer this week. The virtual mobile carrier released an update to its Android(s goog) phone software that allows calls to move between Wi-Fi and cellular data networks without dropping.

As anyone with a smartphone knows, LTE and 3G data coverage can be fickle, causing your phone to flip flop between multi-megabit speeds and the most constricted of connections as you move through the network. VoIP is particularly sensitive to those big peaks and dips in connection quality.

But by adding Wi-Fi to the mix, phones can select the best wireless network available in any given location, and hand-over between the cellular and Wi-Fi means the phone can move a call to the optimal network mid-conversation.

To be honest, TextNow all-IP service isn’t nearly as reliable as a traditional mobile voice plan. When I tested out the service last year, I had a fairly good experience even when making calls over Sprint’s 3G data network. But there was a long delay in setting up calls, and I was testing under optimal conditions: stationary on my home Wi-Fi network or in a dense city network where Sprint’s data networks are most powerful.

But TextNow also doesn’t charge traditional mobile carrier prices. Its baseline plan costs $19 a month and includes 500 MB of data, 750 outgoing minutes and unlimited text messages and incoming calls. According to Enflick CEO Derek Ting, TextNow isn’t designed to replace the traditional Verizon(s vz) or AT&T(s t) voice and data plan. Rather, it’s targeted at a youth market that wants a basic voice service to complement its usual SMS-heavy communications habits.

]]>Music-centric carrier ROK Mobile goes live today, but you can only sign up with an invitehttps://gigaom.com/2014/07/04/music-centric-carrier-rok-mobile-goes-live-today-but-you-can-only-sign-up-with-an-invite/
https://gigaom.com/2014/07/04/music-centric-carrier-rok-mobile-goes-live-today-but-you-can-only-sign-up-with-an-invite/#commentsFri, 04 Jul 2014 14:00:49 +0000http://gigaom.com/?p=855421ROK Mobile promised it would its launch new music subscription service/mobile carrier to the public on July 4, and according to the company, the service will in fact go live today. But ROK obviously holds a more restrictive definition of the word “public” than most of us.

The service, for now, is invite only, and ROK is offering those invites to VIPs close to the company as well as an undisclosed number of consumers who request one on its website. People who get an invite will be able to sign up for a free 14-day trial of its on-demand and streaming music app for iPhone or Android, or sign up for full mobile service plans, which includes unlimited data, SMS and voice for $50 a month, ROK COO Gabriel René told me in an interview on Thursday.

He added ROK will eventually open up to all consumers, but he wouldn’t provide a date.

René said the restricted launch isn’t a beta, but rather a marketing strategy. ROK is following in the footsteps of Google(s goog) and other big internet brands, he said, in limiting the availability of its service at launch (though Google always called its invitation-only Gmail rollout a beta program). In part, ROK wants to get feedback from early adopters, René said, but mainly the fledgling carrier wants to build the allure of exclusivity around its brand.

The founders of ROK are the same people behind Paul Mitchell shampoo and Patrón Tequila, both of which are marketed as premium products to discerning consumers. So you would expect them to create a similar aspirational mystique around their mobile product. But I’m not sure it’s going to work in the mobile market.

John Paul DeJoria, ROK’s co-founder, is most famous for turning Paul Mitchell and Patron Tequila into aspirational brands (Source: ROK Mobile)

ROK does seem to have a compelling product in the works: its planned music service supposedly combines the best aspects of programmable radio services like Pandora and on-demand streaming like Spotify. ROK is even partnering with Gracenote to use its song filtering technology to customize playlists based on users’ moods. It’s targeting smartphone and heavy data users with unlimited plans over Sprint(s s) and T-Mobile’s(s tmus) 3G and LTE networks.

But ROK isn’t charging premium prices. Like other mobile virtual network operators (MVNOs), ROK is reselling other operators’ data, text and voice services at discount to consumers. In this case, its $50 core plan undercuts network partner T-Mobile’s all-inclusive unlimited plans by a full $30 a month, and that doesn’t even factor in the cost of ROK’s subscription music service.

It seems to me ROK shouldn’t be trying to promote the idea of false scarcity. It should be trying to get as many customers as quickly as possible. In all likelihood, it’s trying to do both. Using their mystical powers of self-promotion, ROK’s executive team is probably trying to build hype around their company and its core music service.

Perhaps it will work, but personally I’m not a fan of these kind of marketing tactics. If ROK wants to do a controlled launch for operational purposes, then by all means it should – just call it a beta. That could be what ROK really has in mind but won’t admit it.

Instead ROK is telling many potential customers they’re not important enough to register for its service at its public launch. How many ways could that strategy backfire?